Book Image

Visualize Complex Processes with Microsoft Visio

By : David J Parker, Šenaj Lelić
Book Image

Visualize Complex Processes with Microsoft Visio

By: David J Parker, Šenaj Lelić

Overview of this book

Every business has process flows, but not all of them are fully described to or verified for accuracy with each stakeholder. This not only presents a risk for business continuity but also removes the ability to make insightful improvements. To make these complex interactions easy to grasp, it’s important to describe these processes visually using symbology that everybody understands. Different parts of these flows should be collaboratively developed and stored securely as commercial collateral. Visualize Complex Processes with Microsoft Visio helps you understand why it is crucial to use a common, systematic approach to document the steps needed to meet each business requirement. This book explores the various process flow templates available in each edition of Microsoft Visio, including BPMN. It also shows you how to use them effectively with the help of tips and techniques and examples to reduce the time required for creating them, as well as how you can improve their integration and presentation. By the end of this book, you’ll have mastered the skills needed to create data-integrated business flowcharts with Microsoft Visio, learned how to effectively use these diagrams collaboratively, but securely, and understood how to integrate them with other M365 apps, including Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Power Automate.
Table of Contents (14 chapters)

Adding more detailed information to shapes

All shapes in Visio can store specific data with them. The name and type of data expected are often predefined in master shapes, such as flowchart shapes. Each of them has the following rows defined:

  • Cost: Currency
  • Process Number: Numeric
  • Owner: Text
  • Function: Text and displays the label of the swimlane if it is inside one
  • Start Date: Date
  • End Date: Date
  • Status: A list that contains the Not Started, In Progress, Completed, Deferred, and Waiting on Input values, but we can add any other value too

We can enter values for each row, and they will be stored with the shape:

Figure 3.26 – Viewing Shape Data in desktop Visio

Figure 3.26 – Viewing Shape Data in desktop Visio

The Define Shape Data… command from the Data sub-menu of the right-click menu of one of the flowchart shapes opens a dialog that can be used to edit the existing definitions or to add more. However, the definitions are not normally edited for each...